The Argosy — page 263: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

242 Mrs. Raven's Temptation. ‘Oh no,” she replied. ‘It is really nothing wrong with anybody, only it is an unaccountable thing, and seems to indicate that some sort of mischief may be brewing somewhere. I think it was incautious of me to tell Davies about it. She has taken it up with so much terror as to quite unnerve me. And I suppose sensible people should be above being frightened by anonymous letters.” t ‘Anonymous letters!” echoed Frank. Miss Agate turned upon him brightly. “Yes!” she said. ‘It’s very dreadful, isn’t it? But I suppose such things have to be encountered sometimes, like mud and dust. They only began to come three or four days ago. But they come now regularly every morning. And their purport is, that I should take Evelyn from Ravenscourt. ‘They beseech me, appealing to my feelings—they threaten me, appealing to my terrors; but that one thing is always their burden.” ‘What is their postmark P” asked Philip. ‘Each letter has a different one,” she answered, ‘‘ but all date from villages near Ravenstoke. Davies knows all the places.” “IT don’t like to be suspicious,” said Philip, ‘though human nature generally justifies it: but is it possible that Davies herself has any hand in getting these letters sent to you? She was very fond of Miss Evelyn—is she determined to get her back at any cost? Or, stay! Did you not say that she had once lived in those parts—can she have some idea that Miss Evelyn may hear some story of her past life, which might cause you to part from her ?” Miss Agate shook her head. ‘‘I am sure that your last suggestion is groundless,” she said. ‘Mary knows me much too well to dream that I should turn against her for any past story, after her long, harmless years of patient toil beneath my own roof. Besides, she had grown reconciled to Evelyn’s absence.” | ‘“‘Can you let me see these letters ?” asked Philip. ‘“‘Certainly,” answered Miss Agate, rising. And Frank noticed that they were not stored among any of her papers, but that she fetched them from a little bag hanging beside the fireplace, in which » she usually kept nothing but waste paper. She carried them by the tips of her fingers and dropped them swiftly on the table. There were three of these letters. Each was on only a half sheet of paper. As Philip read each of them, he passed it on to Frank. The messages were short enough. The first ran: ‘As you value the happiness and welfare of your adopted niece, send for her from Ravenscourt.” The second was: ‘Take a word of advice, or you will rue it. Send for your adopted niece before evil befals her.” “This came this morning,” said Miss Agate, as she opened tlie third. ‘London is the place for Evelyn Agate. Keep her under your own eye. Beware of any face that may come to your house for the first time at this period.” CORNICE OOOKS (EO)